Digital Handbill

August 17, 2008

I always find it a bit humorous what totalitarian governments think is dangerous. The talking heads keep telling us about a "New China", but the flimsy facade can't hide the real China and it's human rights violations. It would be nice to just sit down and just enjoy these Olympic games and Phelps' immense talent without having the shadow of Maoism cast over the event like a hammer and sickle shaped radioactive cloud, but it does make the victory sweeter.

BEIJING - Chinese customs officials confiscated more than 300 Bibles
on Sunday from four American Christians who arrived in a southwestern
city with plans to distribute them, the group's leader said.

The Bibles were taken from the group's checked luggage after they
landed at the airport in the city of Kunming, said Pat Klein, head of
Vision Beyond Borders. The group, based in Sheridan, Wyoming,
distributes Bibles and Christian teaching materials around the world to
"strengthen the persecuted church," according to its Web site.

The group arrived in China on Sunday and had intended to distribute
the Bibles to people in the city, Klein told the AP in a telephone
interview while still at the airport.

"I heard that there's freedom of religion in China, so why is there a problem for us to bring Bibles?" Klein said. "We had over 300 copies and customs took all of them from us."

(...)

"We don't want to go without taking those books. It cost us a lot of
money to bring them here," Klein said. "They're saying that it's
illegal to bring the Bibles in and that if we wanted to, we had to
apply ahead of time for permission."

China faces
routine criticism for its human rights violations and its repression of
religious freedom. Religious practice is heavily regulated by the Communist Party,
with worship allowed only in party-controlled churches, temples and
mosques, while those gathering outside face harassment, arrest and
terms in labor camps or prison.

Meanwhile,
less than 30 miles away, the world's attention is focused on the
world-famous 'Bird's Nest' Olympic stadium and the other venues where a
global audience of two billion is watching the Games and enjoying the
spectacle of the 'new' China.

These
camps are being used to imprison - without trial or legal
representation - people that the regime wants the world to believe do
not exist amid the miracle of modern China.

From street
children, hawkers, the homeless and prostitutes, to the mentally ill,
black migrants, drug dealers and gays caught in public bathhouses, the
camps on the outskirts of the city started filling up with Beijing's
'undesirables' last year as part of the Chinese regime's determination
to present what it sees as an acceptable face to the world.

It
is all eerily reminiscent of the build-up to the 1936 Games in Berlin,
when the government cleared similar 'undesirables' from the streets.Under Hitler's regime many of the Nazi concentration camps bore the slogan Arbeit macht frei (Work makes you free) at their gates.

In
China, the camps bear the slogan 'Re-education Through Labour'. (It's a
peculiar irony that Beijing has been so determined to use the English
language to welcome the world, that street signs even bear the chilling
words.) Read on.

Carter's boycott showed disapproval and little else. The absence of boycotting countries just enabled the Communist nation to gather more medals and toot their own horn.

Jesse Owens' four gold medals sent a clear message to Hitler's master race in his own backyard that ethnic Africans were not inferior.

Decades later, we are still struggling against oppressive and violent totalitarian ideologies. Lomong's presence is a stark reminder that we will not be silenced by terrorism, but we will rise up victoriously.

"We will further tighten controls on foreign artists performing in China in order to prevent similar cases from happening in the future," the Ministry of Culture said in a statement on its website.
"We shall never tolerate any attempt to separate Tibet from China and will no longer welcome any artists who deliberately do this."

A video on the Internet site Youtube shows the Icelandic singer closing out her concert in China's financial hub last Sunday with the song: "Declare Independence", during which she yelled "Tibet" several times.

Communist China has ruled Tibet since 1951, after sending in troops to officially "liberate" the devoutly Buddhist region a year earlier.

Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence,
says in testimony prepared for a Tuesday congressional hearing that a
law passed last month expanding the U.S. government's eavesdropping
power is needed to protect not just against terrorists but also against
more traditional potential adversaries, such as those two Cold War foes.

"China and Russia's foreign intelligence services are among the most
aggressive in collecting against sensitive and protected U.S. systems,
facilities and development projects, and their efforts are approaching
Cold War levels," McConnell says in his testimony. "Foreign
intelligence information concerning the plans, activities and
intentions of foreign powers and their agents is critical to protect
the nation and preserve our security."

August 21, 2007

China has close ties to Iran and North Korea, but it looks like they may be an ally against the Taliban.

China and Pakistan has signed a formal agreement covering security arrangements for the 4,000 Chinese citizens working in Pakistan. What this has done is make China a major player in the war against al Qaeda inside Pakistan.

China is a major supplier of military technology to Pakistan, but most of the Chinese in Pakistan are working on major industrial and infrastructure projects. Currently, 7,000 Pakistani military and police personnel protect Chinese working inside Pakistan. In addition, there are a small, but growing, number of Chinese security personnel. The Chinese security detachment works with the Chinese community in Pakistan, to make sure there are no misunderstandings about the need for tight security. The Chinese security personnel also advise the Pakistanis on Chinese security needs, and help get needed technical equipment brought in from China. The major danger to Chinese in Pakistan is Islamic terrorists. Most of these are al Qaeda, and local Islamic radicals (mostly Taliban) who want Pakistan run by a religious dictatorship. Since China has come down hard on real, or perceived, Islamic radicalism at home, China is seen by Pakistani Islamic radicals as "foreign devils" and "enemies of Islam." The Islamic radicals recognize that China is crucial to maintaining Pakistani military and police power, and keeping the current government in power. So there are more attacks on Chinese by Pakistani Islamic radicals.

All this Chinese counter-terror work is done very quietly, and covertly. That may keep it out of the Western press, but the Chinese are increasingly tagged as major bad guys by the Islamic media, especially the outlets that are pro-radical.

August 14, 2007

I was glad to see this article. Both parties have ignored China long enough. The still oppressive communist nation has used capitalism and MFN status to build up it's military while continuing it's human rights abuses and supporting rogue nations like North Korea.

More than a year before the 2008 election, China—occasionally as partner, more often as adversary and potential vote-getter—is also rising as an issue among the candidates for president.

Iraq is, and will be, the top foreign policy issue among the people jockeying for the White House. But as detractors increasingly shine a critical spotlight on China in the buildup to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, the contenders will likely ratchet up their rhetoric on China's ability to help and to hinder American interests around the world.

"It's impossible to avoid China as a policy issue," Doug Holtz-Eakin, a policy adviser to the campaign of Republican Sen. John McCain, said in an interview. "Anybody who is interested in being the next president of the United States has to think consciously about how ... to have China emerge as a responsible stakeholder."

Candidates have been raising, in debates and campaign stops, what they see as China's failure to live up to its duties as an emerging global superpower.
But they also recognize that the U.S. needs China, a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council, to secure punishment for Iran's nuclear program and to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.

As Republican Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, said: "If I'm lucky enough to be president, making China a partner for stability in the world will be one of my highest priorities. China is really key, in many respects, as they become a very large economy."

Many of the comments, however, have been complaints, as candidates work to connect with voters increasingly worried about China's huge military buildup, its flood of goods into the U.S., its ability to influence violence in Sudan's Darfur region, its repression of minorities, dissidents and journalists.

Michael Green, President Bush's former chief adviser on Asia, said that regardless of any harsh words candidates direct toward China, the next president will likely embrace the same measured U.S. policies endorsed by past administrations.

Bashing China might win votes, the reasoning goes, but newly elected presidents soon realize that a more careful tone is needed to deal with the complex U.S.-China relationship.
Still, as the 2008 campaign heats up, criticism has outweighed calls for engagement.
A recurring theme has been that China must do more to use its oil- buying leverage with Sudan to end rape and murder in Darfur.

In a June debate, Democrat Bill Richardson, the governor of New Mexico, suggested that if China does not put more pressure on Sudan, "we say to them, maybe we won't go to the Olympics."

Attention has also been given to Beijing's economic policies and the U.S. trade deficit with China—$232.5 billion last year and expected to grow.
At a debate this month, Obama said of China: "We've got to have a president in the White House who's negotiating to make sure that we're looking after American workers. That means enforcing our trade agreements. It means that if they're manipulating their currency, that we take them to the mat on this issue."

American manufacturers contend the Chinese currency is undervalued by as much as 40 percent, giving China a tremendous competitive advantage against U.S. products.

Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton received applause at a debate by raising reports of faulty or tainted Chinese goods that have been shipped to the United States and other countries. It was under Clinton's husband, former President Clinton, that the U.S. normalized trade relations with China.
"We have to have tougher standards on what they import into this country," Clinton said. "I do not want to eat bad food from China or have my children having toys that are going to get them sick."

March 04, 2007

When China was granted Most Favored Nation status, the thinking was that once the communist stronghold opened up to the free market, democracy would soon follow. It's been ten years since China became our friends in commerce and they've done nothing to advance human rights. In fact, China is using our consumer dollars to fund an unprecedented military build up.

China will boost military spending by 17.8 percent this year, (14.7% last year)a
spokesman for the national legislature said Sunday, continuing more
than a decade of double-digit annual increases that have raised
concerns among the United States and China's neighbors.

Underscoring the concerns about China's military, the legislature's
spokesman, Jiang Enzhu, also accused the president of Taiwan of
manipulating political divisions there to steer it toward formal
independence. China's military spending is largely oriented toward
possible conflicts over Taiwan, which split with the mainland in 1949
and has refused Beijing's offers for peaceful reunification.

January 19, 2007

China has quietly been using the West's capitalism to fund a massive military build up for a few decades. It might be time to cut MFN (Most Favored Nation) status with China until they expand the rights of their own citizens. Otherwise, I think it's safe to say the plan of opening up China with trade is a colossal failure.

Britain has joined the US, Japan and Australia's condemnation of China
after the communist country destroyed a satellite in space using a
ballistic missile.

The British embassy in Beijing said it had raised the
test, the first of its kind for 20 years, with the Chinese foreign
ministry noting that the Government believed it was “inconsistent” with
China’s opposition to the development of space weapons.

A spokesman refused to elaborate on the form the protest took or on the Chinese government’s response.

Later, a Downing Street spokesman said: "We are concerned about the impact of debris in space and we expressed that concern. Read the rest.

You're concerned with space debris? Try the military advantages of knocking out your enemies satellite systems.